Gunfire hits SEPTA bus

A bullet hit a SEPTA bus this afternoon, nearly hitting the driver.The bullet hole on the windshield of the Route 15 SEPTA bus tells a thousand words.

It is smack right in front of where 57-year-old bus driver Curtis Brown was sitting.

Although the bullet somehow missed him, he was struck by flying debris and he yelled to the 16 passengers on board to get down, get down.

"We just all ducked, he said get down and that was it," said Omar Haines.

It was about 5:15 p.m. and the bus was traveling west on Girard Avenue approaching 40th Street when the incident happened.

A number of children were on board as the terrifying ordeal unfolded.

"It was terrible. It was terrible. I can't describe it, but it's terrible," said Stefanel Graham.

"Terrifying. I didn't know what was going on. It was scary. I'm engaged to be married. I can't be getting shot by nobody," Elise Dengel.

One passenger who claimed to have been struck by debris was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania to be checked out.

The question is where did the bullet come from?

"We're not sure, but the trajectory of the bullet appears to be northeast, so we think it came from the area of 40th and Girard," said Chief Inspector Scott Small.

"That's crazy. I mean we got kids on the bus," Shawnice Bowser.

"And the fact that a bullet goes through a SEPTA bus almost striking a driver and 16 passengers on board -- these are innocent people coming home from a hard day's work. It could have been a real tragedy," said Small.

So the questions that remain: was someone shooting at the bus, someone in the bus or was it a stray bullet from something else going on at 40th and Girard Avenue?

So far, police do not have the answers as they continue to investigate.